Owen Wright emerges triumphant in Round 1 of Hurley Pro – 2011 ASP World Tour
Australia’s Owen Wright continued to exhibit an excellent form with a victory in the fourth heat of Hurley Pro’s Round 1 that went down at the iconic point-break of Lower Trestles in California on Sunday, September 18.
Wright walked away with top honours after defeating USA’s Patrick Gudauskas and Conner Coffin to secure his place in Round 3. Gudauskas and Conner got relegated to the second round after finishing in second and third place respectively.
The 21-year-old Wright has been in a dangerous form for the last month and continues to emerge as one of the greatest threat to the 2011 Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Title. Just a week after defeating America’s Kelly Slater in the Final
at Quiksilver Pro New York and moving to No.2 on the ASP World Title Rankings, the young Australian made his way to Lower Trestles to continue is campaign for the World Title.
Facing Gudauskas and Coffin in the fourth heat on the opening day of Hurley Pro, Wright got off to a decent start, locking a wave early in the heat to score 6.93 points off it. Trailing Gudauskas for most part of the three-man battle, the Australian managed
to take an impressive come-from-behind victory with a last-minute effort, scoring 6.67 points off his last wave to move to a heat-total of 13.60 points.
Commenting on the heat afterwards, Wright said, “I had a bit of a battle out there. I’m pretty happy to have made it through this first round because I haven’t won a Round 1 heat in awhile. I really had nothing going on for me coming into the last five minutes
and that wave really didn’t offer much at all and I just had to milk it as much as I could. I just caught the score so I’m pretty wrapped.”
Despite possessing the local knowledge of the waves and having the support of the local crowd behind him, the 25-year-old Gudauskas failed to clinch the win, though his performance during the match-up was nothing short of impressive. He kicked off the heat
with a 7.60-point wave and later added an additional 5.77 points to his account to finish with a heat-total of 13.37 points. The score almost carried him off to victory, but a last-minute effort by Wright deprived him of success.
Coffin remained the weakest performer during the battle for the Round 3 spot. He finished in third place after scoring 11.87 points off his top-two waves, which included a 5.67 and 6.20-point wave.
Gudauskas and Coffin still have an opportunity to extend their life in the competition through a dominant Round 2 performance, which would consequently allow them to qualify for Round 3.
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